Winches may include a motor for driving a rotatable drum of the winch to pull in or pull out a cable wound around the drum. In one example, winches may be controlled via a control unit located at a location away from the motor. Further, a remote control may wirelessly (or via a wired connection) control winch operation through electronic communication with the control unit.
The winch motor may be electrically coupled with a power source in order to drive the motor. In some examples, a contactor assembly is electrically coupled between the motor and the power source in order to control a flow of electrical current from the power source to the motor. The contactor assembly is often mounted to an exterior surface of a housing of the winch or motor, thereby resulting in a plurality of wires electrically coupling the motor to the contactor assembly and the contactor assembly to the power source. In examples in which a control unit is coupled to the winch, the control unit may also be electrically coupled to the contactor assembly via another plurality of wires. As a result of the numerous wired electrical connections between the motor, contactor assembly, power source, and control unit, an installation and/or setup time of the winch may be increased. Additionally, in some environments the plurality of wires may be exposed to harsh weather conditions, may be become tangled and/or frayed, etc., thereby resulting in degradation of the electrical connections between components of the winch and/or the power source.
Thus in one example, the above issues may be at least partially addressed by a motor assembly for a winch, comprising: a motor including a motor armature; a contactor assembly coupled to the motor, the contactor assembly including two or more coils spaced apart from one another within a contactor housing of the contactor assembly and a brush assembly including a plurality of brushes surrounding a rotational axis of the motor and arranged axially to the motor armature; and a motor housing surrounding and enclosing the motor and contactor assembly within an interior of the motor housing. In this way, an amount of wired electrical connections between the motor, contactor assembly, and a power source of the winch may be reduced. By reducing the amount of wired electrical connections, the installation and/or setup time of the winch may be reduced and winch maintenance may be performed more easily.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.